Sex abuse charge teacher 'used Mintie lure'

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A former Sydney private school teacher allegedly used Minties to entice young boys to go skinny-dipping and sleep naked with him at a youth camp at which he was an instructor in the 1980s.

Gary Maxwell Featherstone is facing 62 charges of child sex abuse and was today refused bail in Central Local Court.

He was arrested on Saturday as he walked free from Sydney's Long Bay jail, having ended a 12-month sentence for importing about 50,000 child pornographic images.

The 62 charges relate to acts of indecency and intercourse with four boys aged 11 to 16 between the years of 1981 and 1990 at Featherstone's Sydney home and at various YMCA summer holiday youth camps in and around Sydney.

Police allege at least one victim has identified himself on videos seized from Featherstone's home.

It's also alleged that while at a camp in the Richmond area, Featherstone told about 10 boys in his group that he would give them a Mintie if they agreed to swim and sleep naked with him.

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Featherstone is alleged to have said: "Everyone gets a Mintie if they go skinny dipping" and later, while camping at a nearby cave, "We are all sleeping in the nude tonight. Who wants to sleep in my sleeping bag? - There's another Mintie in it".

A then nine-year-old boy, whose parents were going through a divorce at the time, agreed to it after seeing other children take him up on the offer and was subsequently allegedly assaulted.

Police alleged Featherstone sought permission from the boy's mother to maintain contact and over a seven-month period the assaults continued as he gave piano and tennis lessons to the boy while a teacher at the Pittwater Grammar School.

Following a weekend away in the Blue Mountains with Featherstone, the boy watched a television current affairs program on paedophilia and decided he no longer wanted to continue the relationship.

It's alleged Featherstone then called the boy, who was in tears, and said: "Are you going to tell anyone? Don't tell anyone. It's our secret."

Magistrate Allan Moore today refused Featherstone's bail application, saying it could not be proved that he had been properly rehabilitated during his jail time and no longer posed a risk to society.

"Greater material from professionals is needed to give the court comfort at this point in time," Mr Moore told the court.

"Without any further material, this court is not of the view that it's appropriate to grant bail."

Featherstone's lawyer Bill O'Brien had argued for bail on the grounds that the child sex abuse offences were alleged to have occurred long before the offences for which he was jailed, which involved no physical contact with children.